Weekly Space Hangout - Jan. 12, 2012

The Weekly Space Hangout for January 12, 2012. This week we discussed the possibility there are more planets than stars, new dark matter maps, Tricorder X-Price, the colour of the Milky Way, and the Dawn Mission.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• weekly space hangout
• astronomy
• space exploration

[pryletoncyo]

6 years ago I used to think Emily Lakdawalla was the greatest looking woman in astronomy. Damn, she got married. Is Pamela married?

[astrospherevids]

@pryletoncyo Yup, she's married.

[Ravenclth]

The probes left us a message on pluto, its most likley "Bob was here first! Suck it Gary!"

[Ravenclth]

Right at the start, Phil looks like hes gonna kill someone.. or is it just me? Anyway he looks maaaadd!

[pryletoncyo]

Earth return is done using the same lunar orbiting Soyuz, the cosmonaut has a simple landing/departure "craft", almost like a trolley.

[pryletoncyo]

To add, the Soviet plan for Moon landing was simple. Two heavy Souyz craft are launched, dock in low Earth orbit. The other carries the crew, the other carries the fuel and landing craft. Cosmonauts move to the Earth departure stage with the fuel for trans-lunar injection, undock and execute TLI. The trans-lunar Soyuz brakes for Lunar orbit, and a single cosmonaut performs a landing using a space suit.

[pryletoncyo]

@JOHNINCOLUMBUS After the initial Luna probes and the Lunokhod robotic landing the funding for the the human lunar landing was cut, it was deemed too dangerous. N1 project went on until it was cancelled after four failed tests of the launch vehicle. It is generally agreed that N1 failed because it used over 32 engines in the first stage alone, while Saturn used only four. N1 failed in the first stage, before separation every time.

[pryletoncyo]

@JOHNINCOLUMBUS Hoagland never worked in the space industry in any meaningful way. There are artifacts on the Moon, Soviet Union landed a lot of probes there before the US, and found it cold, inhospitable and boring. 2001: Space Odyssey was a science fiction movie, not reality. It was a spiritual movie, according to the writer, Clarke.

There are no other "artifacts" on the Moon that we know of. The Moon has been imaged now better than the Earth itself, oceans of the Earth are less known.

[inagod]

I doubt they would comment on your question,but it's pretty much the same as the people that believe that we didn't land on the moon 6 times and bring back 800 lbs of rocks,spending a little time at the library,internet etc will give you the correct answer's.As far as my own research,there are no visible artifacts on the moon and we did in fact land on the moon 6 times.But as we explore the universe,looking for artifacts is worth while [I believe their was a paper written on the subject]